Randomness and a Freebie

I have been racking my brain since Sunday to try to come up with a real topic for blogging on and I've come up with nothing. Nada. So here I am with a random hodge podge of stuff.
I have about a month before school starts back and really sooner than that I need to head to my classroom. I don't even know if I can get in my room yet. Usually I head back into the classroom in the month of July. I'm a weirdo. I like working in my room before school starts because there is no pressure. I can work on projects and if I feel like leaving I can. It is time for me to start thinking about what I want to do in my classroom and the next school year.
I'm planning on using bright colors in my classroom. I created a decor set all in rainbow colors to use this year. You can check it out on TPT. It is my first editable item. It was a lot of fun to make and I can't wait to get all ready for my room.

Here's the link on TPT

I realized while laying in bed the other night that I still needed name tags and tags for cubbies. I usually use a placemat for the name tags that has letters, numbers, colors, and such on it. But I won't use those until the second six weeks. (You can find a freebie of that on my facebook page under fan freebies tab.) So I made a freebie to share with you. 

Click here to go to the freebie. 

Mondays I keep my almost 3 year old niece. We have a blast together and I get to "teach" her. Yesterday we played Hi Ho Cherrio.

I don't think I had played this game since I was a kid. I was so impressed that my niece was able to play the game. I had to interpret the spinner some for her but she was able to count the fruit off her tree or out of her basket. Of course she also had fun just taking all the fruit and putting in her shell from the beach. But it got me thinking. This game would be perfect for beginning of the year math workstations. It practices counting, one to one correspondence and just playing a game. I'm definitely going to be finding this game for my classroom. 

We also had a lot of fun with pipe cleaners and beads. We made bracelets but again there was a lot of learning to be had. There was counting, sorting and then fine motor skills. It reminded me of this pin that I found on pinterest. 

I'm definitely going to be setting this one up for the first rotations. Looks pretty simple to get going and good for the kids to practice counting and some fine motor skills.

So those are my random thoughts for today. I spent part of my day with a family from school whose son has brain cancer. I asked for prayers back in January but I thought I'd share again. Please pray for this 12 year old boy and his family. I am so amazed by the strength his parents have had through this all.